A hunting season is open, and we are the hunted.
So begins
Hunted in Russia, a documentary from the U.K.'s Channel 4. It was broadcast after the Solchi Olympics on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) series
The Passionate Eye, which airs interesting and important documentaries from around the world. The program can be viewed online at the
CBC, but that site is likely blocked for viewers outside Canada. Searching youtube brings up several hits, though the program itself appears to have been removed, probably at the request of the original film makers. The clip
here, about 10 minutes in length, is not included in the documentary as broadcast on CBC, and may or may not be a separate program also from Channel 4.
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From CBC:
Hunted in Russia explores the terror that gay people in Russia are calling "the hunting season". This shocking documentary offers unique access to vigilante groups that track down, beat up and humilate gay men and women. It depicts a country troubled by disturbing homophobic violence and intimidation -- a country in which gay people are treated like animals and hunted for sport.
That's not an exaggeration. Things have gotten considerably worse for gay people in Russia, since the 2013 propaganda law that loosely bans references to "non-traditional" relationships. Presumably, the law is all about protecting children. Unofficially, what many of the Russian people hear is that it is now open season on gays. The Russian government seems to be drawing a link between homosexuality and paedophilia, and many in the population are acting upon the "open season" mentality.
The line "A hunting season is open, and we are the hunted" is spoken on camera by a man who wears a patch taped over one of his eyes. That is a foreshadow of things to come.
The program points out that homosexuality was made legal in Russia 20 years ago. But the general population has not been very accepting. With the new law, vigilante groups have sprung up to take matters into their own hands, accosting and brutalizing gay men just for being gay men.
We soon visit the home of a man named Timor [his name is not spelled out on-screen; that's what it sounds like to my ears], along with his wife and 7-year old son. Timo is a jewelry designer, and the spare-time operator of a website named "Parents of Russia". It's all about traditional family values. Translated captions as Timor speaks in Russian:
I am involved in the fight against the corruption of our children. ... Having a wife and child changes the way you think.
Well, sure. But the voice-over narration continues:
Today, Timor and his colleague Dimitri are planning to disrupt the gay film festival.
Timor explains, talking to an unknown third party on his iPhone, that he has a new great idea: Hand out gift bags at the film festival, containing soap and rope. Along with those, a card explaining that the recipient should cleanse himself of his wickedness, and commit suicide:
Filth like them should not exist. It would be ideal if instead of making us push them out of Russia they could just take their own wretched lives themselves.
Can you feel the love from this self-proclaimed family values guy?
As people arrive at the film festival, we see another man handing out the brightly colored gift bags, telling guests (falsely) that these are gifts from the festival organizers. The narration explains that Timor and Dimitri are well-known by the gay community, and so the bag distribution is in the hands of a lesser-known associate while they keep to the sidelines. From outside a fence, guests are further harrassed verbally.
Later in the evening, a bomb threat is called in. The building holding the festival is evacuated, and even though the threat is eventually called a hoax, the festival is effectively terminated.
Later still, Timor literally applauds the bomb threat caller as a patriot, while choosing words carefully to avoid being associated with that particular act. Timor again:
Homophobic Russia. They should get used to it. This is Russia. This is hell for homosexuals. They'll be diagnosed as sick. They will will eventually be persecuted under criminal law and Russia will have one problem less.
So far, we have seen a lot of hatred and anger, expressed openly by one who has the ability and desire to speak openly and on camera. It's about to get even more ugly.
This narration runs over videos of men being brutally beaten and kicked, and abused naked in a bathtub:
Violent attacks against gay people have increased dramatically. And a disturbing new trend has emerged. Homophobic vigilante groups across Russia have started to hunt gay men for fun. They post their trophy videos online. We've blurred the faces of their victims to protect their identities. In Russia, tens of thousands of people log on to watch these brutal and humilating attacks.
The program now returns to the man quoted at the beginning, with one eye patched over. His name is Dima, and he is now blind in that eye. He was attending a private party at a community center, when attacked by an armed gang. There were gunshots, but Dima's injuries came from a savage beating. Dima:
I tried to hide behind the corner. They shouted, "Where do you think you're going, faggot?"
He explains the event, and how scared he was for his life and the lives of others. So far there have been no arrests.
Not just the state, but the church plays a role in shaping public attitudes toward gays:
... the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has referred to gay marriage as a sign of the apocalypse. ... The church routinely reinforces the belief of many Russians that there's a direct link between homosexuality and child abuse.
(Father Sergei, a "respected priest"):
These things are interconnected. Where gays are allowed, paedophilia will soon flourish. Permitted evil gives rise to more evil. Paedophiles, gays and people like this, are basically serving the Devil.
It may seem extreme, but gay people in Russia are confronted by this belief on a daily basis. ... For Dima, there's a direct link between the attack on him, and the homophobic attitudes of Russia's authorities.
Tanya, a researcher into the vigilante movement, comes on to explain the mindset of the vigilantes. She says that the words homosexual and paedophile are often used interchangably. As she speaks, a video plays of a man, naked and forced at gunpoint to admit to being gay and say his name and other personal information. She describes, but does not show, that the video goes further to show the man, terrified and crying, being forced to "rape himself with a bottle". Police apparently investigated the matter, but nothing became of that. Tanya:
And so these men, who attack gay men in Russia, feel that they can act with impunity; that this is actually supported by Russian authorities and Russian public, and that they are actually doing the right thing by attacking these men.
In the next segment, the narrator explains that until recently, gay men used the Internet as a safe place to find each other. No more. The vigilantes are increasingly trolling the online chat rooms and forums, looking to lure gays into their traps.
The producers of the program negotiated with the largest of the vigilante groups to record the planning and execution of their attacks. This group is active in more than 30 Russian cities, and is well organized. They claim to be exclusively targetting paedophiles. But that is clearly not what they are doing, even considering the supposed equivalence of paedophiles and gays. A female organizer:
Everybody seems to think that "Occupy Paedophilia" is a homophobic organisation and that we fight gays, not paedophiles. I have said many times that although 30 paedophiles I have personally caught, 28 were gay it doesn't mean that I am fighting gays.
"Occupy Paedophilia"? Good grief.
The documentary films the group filming themselves trolling for a gay man to rendezvous for sex. The target man is suspicious, but eventually shows up. Instead of a man to hook up with, the target finds himself in an apartment surrounding with a hostile group of 13 men, and a woman. The female quoted above tells the man to calm down, that he won't be hurt. The documentary cameraman is forced out of the room, but then works his way back in. Perhaps his presence saves the target gay man from an even more brutal treatment than he gets.
The woman "interviews" the target, who is crying and afraid. Very afraid. Two of the vigilante men manhandle him into submission. She fills his head with various threats and intimations of what the other men might do to him if he does not cooperate. They threaten to pour piss all over him. They make him get up and dance. After an hour of torment, he is released. But he knows that this humiliation, including his face, will soon be posted online for everyone to see: family, friends, co-workers.
Remember, this vigilante group claims to exclusively target paedophiles. Yet their trolling to find a victim had nothing to do with that. They targetted a gay man, to have gay sex with another man, and lured him into a trap of torment. Had this incident not been the subject of a documentary crew, that man at that particular time and place might have ended up in an even worse situation.
Next, we see two people picketing on the street, in support of gay rights. The police quickly move in, because two people picketing together is illegal. Only one person at a time is allowed, and any others must be at least a certain distance away. They get off with a warning. One of the officers, with a video camera, is also recording.
Dimitri, who we met earlier with Timor, is accused of bashing the face of a man who was simply carrying the "gay flag", some 18 months earlier. Dimitri could face 2 years in prison if convicted for this assault; at the time he was remanded for 2 months before bail was set. His lawyer argues that the photographic evidence of the bashing at the time, is a forgery. The lawyer succeeds in getting the case adjourned. Everyone expects that by the time 2 years have passed, the case will be dropped completely. Dimitri is shown leaving the court building smiling. His victim, escorted out under heavy security, is taunted. The abuse, for him, has not ended.
Katerina is a teacher. Although not gay herself, she supports gay rights, and opposes the kinds of things we have seen already in the program. Timor is on her tail, posting photographs of her on his website, demanding to have the "gay teacher" fired. He remarks on camera that she is always smiling, and that's not natural. Katerina:
Right now it suits the state and the regime to organise this witch hunt because our economic situation, our pensions, our salaries, our healthcare, and our education are all getting worse. Understandably people need someone to blame. To stop people from focusing their anger at the authorities, the regime is igniting and maintaining this conflict and hatred.
If she's right, I guess that's what a
real distraction on the part of the government looks like.
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